Donald J Trump Infrastructure Priority List -- January 24, 2017

I assume President Obama shared similar information with the American public when he was president but I honestly don't recall. All I remember early in his presidency was the "beer summit" (beer and peanuts) and the Trayvon Martin story. Seriously. And, then, of course, one of the biggest tax bills in the history of the United States which was famously supported by Nancy Pelosi who said we won't know what's in it until it's passed. And then it was too late. Whatever.

But here we have it: the Donald J. Trump Infrastructure Priority List (DJTIPL).

The first thing we need to do is see if there are any

• obvious conflicts-of-interest;
• probable conflicts-of-interest;
• possible conflicts-of-interest;
• no obvious conflicts-of-interest now but possibly, maybe sometime in the future;
• no conflicts-of-interest whatsoever but within 750 miles of a Trump-named golf course which could be considered a conflict-of-interest byThe Washington Post

I don't have to "fact-check" but I'm sure Senators Warren and Schumer are all over this, with the help of a small army of unpaid interns previously working for the Clinton Foundation.

That said, some data points from the DJTIPL:

• 50 infrastructure projects
• nationwide
• totaling at least $137.5 billion
• possible projects:
• a new terminal for the Kansas City airport
• upgrades to I-95 in North Carolina
• construction of a high-speed railway from Dallas to Houston: $18 billion; would be built by a Japanese company could transform transportation in the Lone Star State
• funding via public-private partnership
• very, very similar to the "Governors List" circulated in December, 2016

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Playing Hardball

Just in: President Trump bans EPA employees from giving "social media" updates and bans employees from talking to the press.

I remember years ago when "Hardball with Chris Matthews" debuted on some cable network. I vaguely remember watching one or two "shows" but do not remember my reaction one way or the other. All I remember is I never watched it after that.

Occasionally, I come across "Hardball with Chris Matthews" as I surf through the "channels" to get to where I want to go. I pause for a minute or so, and still have the same reaction: if this is "hardball" I've forgotten the definition of the word. We had more intense discussions in college.

Likewise, Bill O'Reilly's "the spin stops here." Hardly. The "spin" goes on and on with Bill. I don't / won't watch him either.

After the election I watched MSNBC "Morning Joe" for about one week; no longer watch it. I tune in to CNBC "Squawk Box" less and less but tend to watch a fair amount of CNBC now that Trump is getting very, very active in the morning, and to watch the Dow 30 move toward 20,000. Speaking of which: we were incredibly lucky that the market did not hit 20,000 under President Obama. He would have taken credit for it, when it was obviously the Trump rally. So, we'll see.